COURTEOUS READER,WHEREAS I was fully determined to have concealed my Sonnets as things privy to myself; yet, of courtesy, having lent them to some, they were secretly committed to the Press and almost finished, before it came to my knowledge.

Wherefore making, as they say, Virtue of Necessity, I did deem it most convenient to prepose my Epistle, only to beseech you to account of them as of toys and amorous devices; and, ere long, I will impart unto the World another Poem, which shall be both more fruitful and ponderous.